In the last session, we left off in the middle of the game between the Xaositects and the Party. At that time, the players' team was down two members as Dr. Fever and Twig decided to sit the start of the game out and provide a play-by-play description of the action to the mimir. (The good doctor was providing "modron-cam", while the wood genasi was cheerfully providing off-color commentary.)

The session started with Rusteen finally realizing that being surrounded by three Chaosmen was a bad idea. He retreated to a spot between the fetid pond and a patch grease conjured earlier by Que. This would force the gnomes and friend to go through one obstacle or the other if they wanted to continue flanking him. The human thug decided to attack Ginaea instead, while the gnomes continued to harass Rusteen.

In the meantime, Ginaea, Shazarr, and Twig all ran into the fog cloud, trying to gang tackle the Chaosmen's kangaroo. Upon seeing this, Que decided to help out his now acceptably-acting friends and successfully used a dispel magic scroll to remove the magical cover. This quickly showed exactly where the kangaroo was, as well as two more Xaositects who had showed up and decided to join in the game.

And from here, things went downhill - mostly for the NPCs.

Continuing to play kangaroo, Shazarr drew the attention four of the seven Xaositects, all of whom continued to believe that he was the genuine article. Rusteen finally managed to knock out one of the gnomes, and began chasing down the other one. He eventually caught the little bugger and, in frustration, drew his great sword and cut the gnome nearly in half. Fortunately, all the other Chaosmen were too busy to see this change in game, but they really weren't in a position to do anything about it anyway. This is because Ginaea got into a good position and stomped a number of people into falling on the ground (including Shazarr). Que then proceeded to color spray the lot of them, blinding and stunning everyone in the area (including Shazarr). This double-duty incapacitation is what finally allowed the party (Ginaea and Twig, really) to tie up the Xaositect kangaroo.

Of course, the actual combat wasn't quite as clean as the previous paragraph sounds. Twig ran afoul of a grease patch created by the Chaosmen's kangaroo, and Dr. Fever engaged in a quick check of Sigil's gravity by firing a heavy crossbow straight up into the air. (But he did remember to put a shield over his top face and prevent a nasty puncture wound.)

Once the combat was over, the party proceeded to ask a few prefunctory questions about the Xaositect philosophy, although it was pretty apparent during the course of the game.

From there, the party left the Hive Ward and entered the Clerks' Ward, with the intention of interviewing a member of the Fated. The resident Fated namer, Rusteen, decided (unfortunately for him) to interview his sponsor in the faction - an old dwarf by the name of Korkwright. Twig offered a flask of excellent dwarven spirits in exchange for information - both about the faction and Rusteen. It seems that Rusteen failed his tests to become a factotum in the Fated due to his incredible curiousity about what people have in their pockets, mysterious boxes, etc. It also appears as if Rusteen holds a different view of the true meaning of the Fated's core philosophy.

Given that is was now evening - and Dr. Fever's dinner alarm sounded - the party retired to a nearby tavern and inn. Rather than risk going back into the Lady's Ward at night, as well not wanting to walk halfway around Sigil to get back to the Eye, the party spend the night in the Clerks' Ward.

The following day, the party headed directly for the City Courts to find a Guvner to interview. Twig grabbed some poor clerk out of the crowd and let Dr. Fever engage him in conversation, while Twig proceed to make the guy extremely nervous with not-so-subtle flirting. The party did receive a very complete listed of the faction's structure and beliefs. However, Que, Shazarr, Zin, and Ginaea stood close to the conversation and nearly died from boredom.

Rusteen, on the other hand, had wandered far enough away to not get sucked into the boredom and instead spotted a familiar - and hated - figure. A tiefling Mercykiller by the name of Vermylian was present in the Court. Rusteen got the party to "interview" the woman. After she left, Rusteen revealed that Vermylian was responsible for the murder of his parents and that was his reason for being on the planes in the first place - he was seeking revenge.

After this revelation, the party quickly left the City Courts in order to determine how the rest of the party was going to experience fear before returning to the Civic Festhall to interview a Sensate and complete their task.

Authored by: Ken Lipka E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com

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